THE COURTHOUSES
OF MARION COUNTY

The city of Jefferson
was founded in the early 1840s and was originally the county seat
of Cass County when that county was organized in 1846. It lost its
county seat status to Linden
when that town was formed in 1852, but became the county seat of the
newly formed Marion
County in 1860.

County leaders met in several different places before a vote was held
in 1867 to construct a courthouse, including a plantation home, a
building known as Birgess Hall and the Perry Building. None of these
buildings survive today. After six years of raising the money and
a year of construction, the first
courthouse was completed in 1874 near a plantation away from the
downtown section of Jefferson. Designed
by architect Thomas Hinkle, it was a rectangular, two-story, brick,
Greek Revival style building with a gabled roof, full entablature
and a front façade containing a portico with four massive, unfluted
Doric columns and a pediment that had a diamond shaped window. The
front had three bays and the side had nine bays of windows. Defective
lumber in the building’s roof caused a leak over the judge’s bench
and when the contractors refused to fix it, the county refused to
pay them for their work.

Complaining that the courthouse was too far away from town, the government
abandoned this building in 1876. It was later used as a school for
Black children until it burned in 1937 (although the Texas Historical
Commission lists the date as 1942.) A building was rented for county
business until the current courthouse was constructed between 1912
and 1913. The Murphy
Building, originally built in the early 1850s as a warehouse,
was remodeled in 1884 for county offices and courts and is still used
today as a courthouse annex.

The current brick courthouse was designed by architect Elmer George
Withers in a Classical Revival style with receding porticoes on the
front and rear sides and two, two-story unfluted Doric columns framing
the entrances. The building has a raised basement, an entablature
and cornice surrounding the roof, balustrades over the front and rear
entrances and a hipped roof covered with red tile. The courthouse
is a virtual twin to the courthouse
Withers designed for Roberts County in 1913 with the exception
of an east side entrance with a small portico on the Marion County
courthouse. In 2010 and 2012, Marion County received grants from the
Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program for emergency repairs
to their courthouse, but hopes remain for an eventual full historic
restoration.

MARION COUNTY
COURTHOUSE

The Texas legislature
created Marion County
in 1860. Jefferson, established as early
as 1841, was chosen as county seat. By 1860, Jefferson
was a regional economic center for steamboat traffic on Big Cypress
Bayou, navigable due to a logjam on the Red River.

The county government occupied several buildings during its first
50 years, including a courthouse built in 1873 and the Murphy Building,
used today as a courthouse annex. In 1912, the county hired architect
Elmer G. Withers to design a courthouse. Similar to his design for
the Roberts County courthouse, this Classical Revival building features
Doric columns, blustered parapet, denticulation and raised basement.Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2002

The First (1874)
Marion County Courthouse
Library of Congress Photo

The Murphy Building,
two buildings west of the 1912 courthouse, has been used for county
offices and courts since 1884.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, February 2012

MURPHY BUILDING

Brothers John C.
Murphy (1816-71) and James M. Murphy (b. 1820) of Tennessee came to
Jefferson, Texas in 1850. They owned a
wholesale cotton firm and were prominent businessmen. In the early
1850s they built this structure as a warehouse in the riverfront district.
In 1884 the building was remodeled for county offices and courts.
In 1915 it became the City Hall, with space for the Chesterfield Dance
Club and the Jefferson volunteer fire
department. A Diebold safe, installed in 1877, continues to serve
the building, again used for county offices.
(1983)